The final three months of last year were so quiet that Kaspersky actually thought hackers moved on to different methods, including cryptomining and whatnot. The researchers also said it was quite possible that businesses improved their cybersecurity posture and learned to protect themselves better.

Now we see that the hope was short-lived, as attacks that last an hour or longer, have increased by 487 per cent.

“The DDoS attack market is changing. New DDoS services appear to have replaced ones shut down by law enforcement agencies. As organisations implement basic countermeasures, attackers target them with long-lasting attacks. It is difficult to say if the number of attacks will continue to grow, but their complexity is showing no signs of slowing down. We recommend that organisations prepare themselves effectively, in order to withstand sophisticated DDoS attacks,” comments Alexey Kiselev, business development manager on the Kaspersky DDoS Protection team.

Kaspersky advises businesses to make sure their web and IT resources can handle high traffic, and to make sure they have professional solutions that can help protect and mitigate these attacks.